Crystal Lake Pond Doesn't Alarm Epa

Agency Testing Material From Veteran Acres Lake

February 12, 1999|By Barbara Iehl. Special to the Tribune.

Two representatives from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday that their preliminary observations of material dredged from a lake at a Crystal Lake park gave them no cause for alarm.

The EPA was responding to reports that the material, dredged from the bottom of Veteran Acres Lake and deposited at Lippold Park, contained hazardous compounds. Lippold Park drains into the city's namesake lake.

Though officials with the environmental agency didn't see any need to take immediate action at the site, they said they will study tests performed on soil samples before coming to a conclusion.

"We don't have any reason to believe that there is any problem," said Jay Patel, regional manager for the EPA's Bureau of Water. "If we were dealing with industrial runoff or hazardous waste, it would be a problem. But (Veteran Acres Lake) is a pretty normal retention pond. I don't think anything harmful is going to carry through to the wetlands area."

Jim Madda, the Crystal Lake resident who alerted the city's watershed and lake ecology agency to a potential problem, said he was concerned about any substances in the excavated material migrating into the watershed.

"There's 60 years of accumulated urban runoff concentrated in that pile. It's not good common sense to leave that material here where runoff can be absorbed by the watershed," he said. The lake in Veteran Acres Park had long served as a retention area for storm runoff from busy Illinois Highway 176.

On a recent walk at Lippold Park, Madda detected the odor of fuel oil at the dumping site and took samples of the foul-smelling muck. The hauler hired by the Park District admitted some of the drivers put fuel oil in their truck beds to keep the material from sticking when it was dumped. Park officials theorized that only a small amount of fuel oil had gotten into the dredgings that way.

The Park District has not taken Madda's concerns lightly. Eight samples from the pond bottom and from the material moved to Lippold Park have been taken.

Chicago-based Carlson Environmental was hired by the Park District, to determine whether any hazardous wastes were present.

According to Park Board President Glenn Turner, the district has spent $20,000 for testing since citizens in Crystal Lake voiced their concerns.

George Boulet, chairman of the Crystal Lake Watershed Management and Lake Ecology Agency, accompanied EPA representatives as they inspected the area and expressed confidence that the final report will give a fair assessment of the situation.

The Park District planned to use 16,000 yards of excavated material to create an eight-foot berm about 70 feet wide and stretching several hundred feet along the border of Lippold Park and Illinois Highway 176. They have stopped hauling material to the site until tests confirm that it meets EPA safety standards.

Plans include covering the excavated material with clay and mineral soils, then with black dirt, and finally planting it with grass and shrubs. A 3-foot silt fence, made of fine mesh and designed to catch any solids that might run off the berm during a storm, will be dug into a trench surrounding the berm.

Once the pond at Veteran Acres has been restored, it will continue to act as a water retention basin for storm runoff, but the district will divert the runoff to a smaller pond where the water can settle before seeping into the larger pond.

"We are taking extra caution before we proceed," Park District Director Kirk Reimer said. "We are trying to do the best we can do to address citizen concerns."